conditional font size for crystal report field

No within 9 it can not be done.  What you could do though is create another section below it and conditionally suppress one or the other if the lenght> 40.

In this case it is a crosstab, and client will not accept all entries in this field being in a small font. She was willing to accept just one unusually long entry in that small font. My above attempt was supposed to be a workaround for not being able to grow the field in a crosstab.

So I guess there is no way to conditionally change one entry's format within a crosstab in version 9?

No. there is not in 9, 10, 11, or 12(possible).. just to help you out with that..

In 8.5, when I right-click on a field in the report, I can go to Format Field, click on the Font tab, and click the formula button next to font size, name, color or whatever.  If you go into the formula for size, you just need to return the numeric for the size you want, i.e. if (length({ClientName}) > 40 then 9 else 12.  Same thing with the font name, just return a string that matches a font name.

That does work in a crosstab.

Right click the cross tab field
Click FORMAT FIELD
Click the FONT TAB
Click the formula button bext to SIZE
If Length(CurrentFieldValue) > 40 then
8
else
10

Similarly for the font

mlmcc

Right Cross tab will allow font changes. jgbreeden in the later version there isnt a place for formulas next to the format text font area. (X+2)

Was coming back to say I'd found the solution here, and others beat me to it:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22428311/Conditional-change-of-font-size-in-Crystal-11.html?sfQueryTermInfo=1+condit+crystal+format+report

Thanks everyone!